I wanted to take time to share
some thoughts on how I developed my writing skills. Suffice it
to say, I was not an overnight success. I am relating this
story because I know that many of you did not do well on your first
writing assignment. My story begins in Pennsylvania.

As some of you probably know
(from reading my bio), I did my undergraduate degree at Grove City
College, which is located in Grove City, PA. GCC is a private
Christian college that maintains a very high academic standing.
I felt I got a great education there and I fell in love with
psychology. Therefore, I decided that I would try to get a
higher degree in the subject and I started thinking about graduate
school.

Because my father was born in
Scotland (and came over on a boat and emigrated through Ellis
Island), I decided to pursue my doctorate in Great Britain.
Without knowing much about the British system, I just sent out
applications and prayed that I would be accepted somewhere.

To my surprise, a lecturer at
the University of St. Andrews reviewed my application and decided to
accept me into the doctoral program for psychology. I had very
little knowledge about the system. I just grabbed my golf
clubs (St. Andrews is the home of golf), and flew to St. Andrews…

As soon as I arrived at the
psychology department, I sensed that something was very different
about the British system of education. Wow, was I right. Here
are a couple of highlights.

First of all, they treat
students like scholars, with a great deal of respect. Second,
the doctoral system is based entirely on independent research that
is conducted under the supervision of an academic mentor. My
mentor was named Dr. Robert Grieve. He was a developmental
psychologist whose research focused on psycholinguistics (the study
of language development and pathology).

Another difference of the system
is that there are no tests and no classes! Did you get that?
—No tests and no classes! All I could think was, “What a
difference from the American system.” Instead of passing
tests, my work was judged on its scientific merit and the criteria
for passing was: “An original contribution to mankind.”

Now, the important point I want
to make is that I was a complete neophyte, engaged in an unfamiliar
environment with no clear sense of direction. To begin with, I
felt I was pretty stupid when compared to my fellow students, and I
definitely felt inferior to my supervisor. In fact, I soon
discovered that Dr. Grieve possessed an incredible intellect.

One day, when I had finished a
rough draft of a research publication (that Dr. Grieve and I were
working on), I observed something remarkable! I still clearly
remember the event—it turned out to be incredibly unsettling. As we
sat there looking at the paper, I realized that I had not yet
completed the reference section of the article we were writing.

Realizing my omission, I spoke
up and told Bob, “I’ll go and get the references so that we can
complete this section.” Bob turned to me and said, “Oh, don’t
worry, I think I know all the references.” What?
I thought! Are you kidding? Sure enough, I watched in
amazement as he wrote out—we did not have computers—about twenty
references, complete with the title of the journal articles, book
titles, authors, publishers, and dates.

As you might imagine, I was
astounded! I thought there were hidden cameras somewhere.
After the initial shock wore off, I asked him how he did it.
He responded that he “just sort of remembered things like that.”
At that moment, I had the horrible feeling that maybe I was in the
wrong place. After all, if I was going to be expected to be
this brilliant, I was really sunk! I remember thinking
something like, “Mommy, help!”

After the initial shock wore
off, I decided I would remain humble the rest of my time at St.
Andrews, and I would try to learn as much as I could from this
incredible intellect who was supervising me. My overall
objective was to be able to think and reason like Bob. I knew
deep down that I would never really reach his level, but I decided
to try.

Over the subsequent weeks,
months, and years, Bob and I met frequently and discussed my
research and other psychology topics. Because of all these
meetings, Bob’s critical thinking skills “started to rub off.”
At some point in time, I realized that I was starting to “think at
another level.” I was not just accepting what I was reading, I
was critically evaluating it and developing my own independent
thoughts and conclusions.

Bob was a fantastic writer, so
his writing skills also rubbed off a bit. However, I must tell
you that the very first paper I wrote for him (which I thought wasperfect) came back with so many red
lines on it I could hardly see my original paper. Once again,
humility, and a desire to “think like Bob,” and “write like Bob,”
were my mantras.

I loved the system in Britain!
Unfortunately, when I came back to the U.S. and took a job as a
professor at Nova University, I got a big shock. I was
teaching doctoral level clinical psychology students in our two
(Ph.D. and Psy.D.) APA approved doctoral programs. I was
expecting a lot from the students, and I assumed that they would be
eager to learn (as I was in St. Andrews). Boy, did I get a
shock!

I had a small seminar class with
only 15 doctoral students. I gave them the assignment to read
some articles that I made available and come to the class prepared
to discuss the articles. To my surprise, on the first day of
the discussion group, I opened up the discussion and then turned to
the students for their input. Surprisingly, only a handful of
students had read the articles, and none of them had anything
intelligent to say about the articles.

When I asked why they had not
read the articles, one of the students said: “Based on the
syllabus, it didn’t look like you were going to test us on those
materials.” In fact, these were the sentiments of most of the
class. They didn’t read the material because they thought they
wouldn’t be tested on it. Needless to say, I was not only
shocked, I was disappointed and a little angry.

Over time, I realized that the
American system of education is focused on tests, and not as much on
learning. It still drives me crazy when people focus on tests,
and test grades, instead of focusing on what they are learning.
In my opinion, most of the students in the U.S. are so heavily
focused on tests and grades, they find it very difficult to “step
back” and critically evaluate what they are learning. In
Britain, I “learned how to learn.” In the U.S., most students
“learn how to take tests.”

Finally, this brings me back to
the topic of writing. In formal, professional writing, it is
critical to avoid spelling errors, punctuation errors, grammatical
errors, etc. As you go out into the working world with your
counseling degrees, you will most certainly be judged by your
writing skills. There is even Biblical precedence for being
careful with your words (click here).

Sincerely,

Dr. Campbell

P.S. I hope to be able to guide
you through the process of developing professional writing skills.
In all humility, my desire is that you “start thinking and writing
like Dr. Campbell,” just as I learned to “start thinking and writing
like Dr. Grieve.” So, let us proceed on our journey.